moon lights

[eagle9252]

do you have to have moon lights or is it ok to have a dark tank? or is it just some different lights for night time viewing

[adam1980]

I think moonlights may be somewhat benificial to the corals and fish becouse they make it more realistic. But in the ocean there are a lot of nights when clouds cover the moonlight. So i would say they are not needed. I had moon lights about a year ago. None since and my corals and fish are still doing great!

[sponger0]

I have moonlights on my tank but only use it for an hour for viewing purposes. They do exhibit different behavior during this time as opposed to just actinics or no lights at all. I do it for just viewing purposes. I just feel they could use a break and have complete darkness. Never researched it but all animals needs nite nite time lol

[nlgill13]

Moonlights are good if you want to follow the lunar cylce...almost everything on earth that grows follows the lunar cylce. this includes all marine life as well, actually even more so because of the tidal effects on the plant...I think they are not a necessity but they are great for viewing and come on many of the higher end led's

[Palting]

No, moon lights are not "necessary". If you have ever scuba dived or snorkeled in the wild among real coral and in real moonlight, you'll realize that the "moonlight" we have in our tanks is nowhere near real life. They're too bright. In fact, my zoas get messed up when I leave the moonlights on all night, and the true nocturnals do not come out when the moonlights are on. Corals prefer a period of complete darkness, rather than the fake moonlight we provide. The "moonlights" are just cool to have, and we humans can think of it as pretend night viewing. However, if you want real night viewing with all the nocturnal life active in the tank, use a muted light with red lens. True night life comes out and we can see them. But, red light isn't so "cool", see, so they market blue LED as "moonlight".